Eu Yan Sang delisting not yet in the bag

THE two funds holding substantial stakes in Eu Yan Sang amid a consortium's takeover offer for the traditional Chinese medicine retailer have already prevented the offeror from carrying out a 'squeeze-out' compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares it does not already own.

But that may not be the consortium's only problem as the closing of the offer on Aug 15 approaches. There is also an interesting possibility that the two funds could by some clever tactics block Eu Yan Sang from delisting altogether, if that is in fact their aim.

If it is and they manage to work with each other to pull that off, they would have together accomplished what other funds have attempted and failed to do in recent cases, such as the privatisations of property developer Singapore Land in 2014 and of engineering firm UE E&C in 2015.